VITAS, one of Florida’s original hospice providers, is now serving patients with life-limiting diagnoses and their families in Collier County.
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Collier County cares for patients by bringing to the bedside an interdisciplinary team—physician, nurse, nurses’ aides, chaplain, social worker and volunteers—with a broad range of expertise in meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients at the end of life and their families.
“VITAS is the first hospice from outside of Collier County to receive a Certificate of Need from the State of Florida to provide care here,” says Dian Backoff, VITAS vice president of hospice operations. “As we commemorate 30 years of care in Florida, VITAS is excited about the opportunity to bring our brand of Innovative Hospice Care to the fastest-growing area of Florida.
“Our staff is eager to begin working with local physicians, hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living communities,” Backoff adds.
VITAS, which has grown to be one of the nation’s largest hospice providers, currently provides quality, compassionate end-of-life care in Florida to patients and families in Brevard, Broward, Flagler, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Seminole and Volusia counties.
Because hospice is not a place, as many believe, VITAS caregivers provide comfort, pain control and symptom management to patients in their own homes, whether that home is a private residence, nursing home or assisted living community, explains Backoff. “Patients and families in the Naples program can access VITAS clinical staff day or night through a 24-hour call center,” she says.
Research published by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization found that most Americans want to receive end-of-life care at home and think hospice professionals are the most knowledgeable in helping them do so.
As a pioneer and leader in the American hospice movement, VITAS has developed resources that have enhanced care for the terminally ill everywhere. VITAS clinicians have authored and edited one of the definitive texts on hospice, “20 Common Problems in End-of-Life Care.” VITAS clinicians also have developed a proprietary pain formulary, wound care guide, analgesic dosage conversion ruler and an extensive library of educational materials for families and healthcare professionals.
In the area of bereavement care, VITAS has published two pamphlets, “Children & Grief” and “Teens & Grief,” to assist caregivers in understanding their children’s grieving process and to help children handle their grief appropriately. VITAS also self-published a short book entitled, “The Surviving Spouse,” in which a former chief patient care officer, a physician, examined the effects of grief on the health of a surviving spouse and offered healthy suggestions for handling grief. VITAS and its charitable foundation also helped publish “Parting: A Handbook for Spiritual Care Near the End of Life,” which is an easy-to-read, easy-to-use guide to assist patients’ caregivers and loved ones in meeting the spiritual needs of patients at the end of life.
“In 1978, VITAS helped define hospice when it opened its first program, in Miami. With the opening of the Collier County program, VITAS now operates 44 hospice programs in 16 states,” says Backoff. “VITAS is dedicated to providing responsive hospice care that is available around the clock. And, as a hospice industry leader, VITAS is committed to continually improving clinical care through advances in pain management, the interdisciplinary approach to providing hospice care and caregiver education.”
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®, a pioneer and leader in the hospice movement since 1978, is one of the nation’s largest providers of end-of-life care. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, VITAS (pronounced VEE-tahs) operates 44 hospice programs in 16 states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin). VITAS employs 9,124 professionals who care for terminally ill patients daily, primarily in the patients’ homes, but also in the company’s 25 inpatient hospice units as well as in hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living communities/residential care facilities for the elderly. At the conclusion of the first quarter of 2008, VITAS reported an average daily census of 11,775.
Contacts:
Mark
Cohen, Sr. VP/Communications & Public Relations
305-350-5905
or
Megan
Carella, APR, Public Relations Specialist
352-560-3415
